(CN) — Nearly 30,000 professors and other employees of the California State University system walked off the job Monday in a weeklong strike to demand higher wages.
The strike is the largest university faculty strike in U.S. history, and comes two weeks after CSU officials ended contract negotiations with the California Faculty Association, which represents roughly 29,000 workers, including teachers, coaches, librarians, counselors, and more.
University officials offered a 5% pay raise starting on Jan. 31, while the union wants a 12% pay bump. In addition to higher wages, the union seeks better work-life balance, a limit on class size, more parental leave and a higher salary floor for full-time employees.
An additional 1,100 CSU plumbers, electricians and other skilled trades workers represented by the Teamsters Local 2010 were set to join the strike Monday but reached an agreement with the university late Friday.
The CSU system is the largest public university system in the United States, and the walkout will affect all 23 of its campuses. The decision to walk off the job on the first day of the spring semester could interrupt classes for the 450,000 students in the university system, but school officials said that all campuses will remain open during the strike.
At CSU East Bay in Hayward, a small but vocal crowd of union members and students blocked an intersection while chanting and singing songs on a rain-soaked afternoon.
A handmade red and black dragon was on the scene, with a sign around its neck that read "Don't mess with faculty! We bite back!"
James Martel, the former president of San Francisco State University's CFA chapter and a current member of the union's executive board, said that the strike is about "more than pay."
"It's basically about having the CSU not act like a private corporation and just remember that they're actually a public institution, and their real priority should be teaching and not hoarding money and making giant investments and paying themselves," Martel said.
Martel said the university system puts away $1 billion a year while "having the nerve to raise tuition on the students."
He added the union's demand for a 12% pay hike would get the teachers "barely above inflation," and accused CSU leaders of not negotiating in good faith because they were never willing to go above 5%.
Martel said the union will not give in and promised more strikes in the future if the demands are not met.
Rin Anderson, a sociology student at CSU East Bay, showed up to stand in solidarity with their teachers. Anderson said that teachers cannot teach properly if they're worried about being able to pay for rent and other needs.
Anderson worked for Students for Quality Education, which they described as the student portion of the CFA union. Anderson said most classes Monday were not taking place because of the strike, but did know some classes that were held on Monday.
Anderson shared an email that Suzanne Espinoza, the vice president of student affairs and enrollment management at CSU East Bay, sent to all students. The email contained a link where students could report if their classes were not being held.
"If a class or service is canceled, you are welcome to share that information with us here so that we can best assure continuity and fulfillment of instruction," a portion of the email read.
Anderson said they thought the email was sent to sow division and encourage students to report their professors and get them in trouble.
"The fact that the CSU system is trying to pit us against each other shows that they're scared of us," Anderson said. "And they have a right to be, because when we fight, we will win."
Anderson called CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia a "million-dollar chancellor, and she has a housing allowance, and car loans. What else do you need so much money for?"
Anderson said the money comes from students and accused university officials of lying about how much money they have.
"There's reports that show they have billions in reserve, and they're trying to say they're saving it for a rainy day, but to me, it's stormy. They're trying to hide their money because they want to fill their own pockets."
Garcia said on a video call with journalists Friday that the university wanted to avoid a strike but that the pay hike the union was asking for was too large.
“We are committed to compensating employees fairly, but we are and must be equally committed to the long-term stability and success of the CSU, which means we must be fiscally prudent,” Garcia said. “We must work within our financial realities.”
The pay raise the union seeks would cost the university more than $380 million, according to CSU officials. They say that they already spend 75% of the operating budget on salaries and can't go higher.
“If we were to agree to the increase that these unions are demanding, we would have to make severe cuts to programs,” Leora Freedman, the university system’s vice chancellor for human resources, said in a news conference Friday. “We would have to lay off employees — this would jeopardize our educational mission.”
The strike comes in the wake of 6% annual tuition increases over five years. The California State University Board of Trustees approved the tuition hike because system officials said they could not balance the budget otherwise.
In December, CFA members staged one-day walkouts across four campuses: Pomona, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco, demanding higher pay, better work-life balance and increased parental leave.
The union and the university have been negotiating since last May; the union announced the strike this month after university officials would not budge from the 5% offer.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
Chipotle consent decree May 2, 2024 -
